LeBron James Jokes 'I Hope I'm Still Invited' to Kevin Love's Wedding After Dunking on Him

LeBron James
LeBron James
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Lauren Bacho/NBAE via Getty

LeBron James arrived with an early wedding present for his former teammate Kevin Love when the Los Angeles Lakers visited the Cleveland Cavaliers this week.

James and Love played for years together on the Cavaliers, helping to lead the team on four straight trips to the NBA Finals and winning it all during their 2016 run.

But 37-year-old James, now on the Lakers, didn't hold back when he landed a massive dunk on Love near the end of the second half of their game on Tuesday. The dunk sent Love, who tried to take a charge, falling to the ground as the crowd erupted for James.

"I hate it had to be him," James explained after the game. "He's my guy. He's my brother. I hope I'm still invited to the wedding, that's all."

"I didn't mean it," he told reporters. "K Love, I love you. I take it back, I wish I could take those two points back. We'd still win the game by nine."

Love — who proposed to his girlfriend, Kate Bock, in January 2021 — dished out some revenge when he playfully put James in a headlock after the game.

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The Lakers have struggled much of the season but earned a high-scoring 131-120 win against the Cavaliers. L.A. has won two out of their last three games and now have a 31-41 record.

Cleveland is having one of their best seasons since James' departure from the team in 2018. With a 41-31 record, they are sixth in the Eastern Conference and are poised to earn a spot in the playoffs.

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If the playoffs started today, the ninth-place Lakers would qualify for the Play-In Tournament, which takes place after the regular season and before the start of the first round of the playoffs.

During the tournament, teams with the seventh through 10th highest-winning percentages in each conference play against each other to secure the seventh and eighth seeds, and their trip to the playoffs.

After winning the NBA championship in 2020, the Lakers outlasted the Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies in the 2021 Play-In Tournament but were eventually eliminated by the second-seed Phoenix Suns, a team considered one of the favorites to win this year's title.